Cuts ahead at Tanandice

Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson has warned that his family can no longer bankroll the Tannadice wage bill and cost cuts will be inevitable.

Thomson was talking to the BBC today and his interview seems to hint at tough times ahead for United as he looks to cut back and make the club self sustaining. He revealed in the interview United would have entered administration if his family had not bought the club eight years ago.

The revelations came on the 2^nd anniversary of Thomson becoming Chairman at Tannadice taking over when his father died in October 2008. He is now in the process of dealing with Peter Houston on how to reduce the wage bill for next season.

He said in the interview, "There's a lot of players out of contract at the end of the season and the wage budget will be cut for next year."

“If it hadn't been for someone like my father coming in this club would have been in administration back in 2004 or something like that The manager already knows all that and we are working for the future.

"It's very tough, crowds are down across the board in Scottish football. Our crowds were down 10 per cent last season, despite probably our second most successful year ever.

"When we took over the club eight years ago the club was about £4.2m in debt. That year we lost about £2.8m, which takes you to a higher debt than we currently are today.

He also spelled out the extent to which the Thompson had supported the club in recent year. "In the last 18 to 20 months we've put £450,000 in and we'll have to put some more in this season. But the answer is no. The net figure my father got from the sale of (his former) business was £9m and £5.5m of that has gone into the club - that's over 60% of his worth."

This is indeed another bitter blow for Scottish football, as another of our bigger city clubs is almost seen putting up the white flag and saying it can’t compete at the top of the table.

What this kind of move will ensure is the rest of the SPL outside of the Old Firm will be competitive but possibly of lower quality, unless the clubs continue to bring through some of their own youngsters.

It is also bad news for the city of Dundee, with United cutting back and Dundee FC in administration. Is this the end of a top flight challenge from the City of Discovery